Oceans absorb more than 90% of the heat trapped by global greenhouse gas emissions. This stored heat drives phenomena like sea level rise — which threatens the lives of billions of people living in coastal areas — and increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes and typhoons.

The research which reconstructed the amount of heat absorbed by the oceans in the study period found, for instance, that heat transfer by currents to the low and middle latitudes resulted in half the rise seen since 1971 at the region.